Hager Happenings: Christmas Morning 2010

Christmas morning is our time to celebrate with our own little family. This year Joshua was making some poor behavior choices the night before and had lost all of his presents - a lot of jealousy over Matthew's Playmobil recycling truck caused many behavior isses which in turn led to all of his gifts being taken away and needing to be earned back. Joshua actually did earn a present back right before going to bed Christmas Eve night so at least he had one under the tree for Christmas morning. However, he was able to earn the others back slowly over the course of the entire morning by making good choices and man did the child go out of his way to make good choices, be kind and respectful! We started the morning with cinnamon rolls, the lighting of the Advent wreath, telling the story of Jesus' birth and singing happy birthday to Jesus. The first gift opened Christmas morning was the one Joshua brought home from church last Sunday - it was a little baby figure to remind us about the one true gift we all received in that tiny babe Jesus who was born to save us all.

Then it was on to the gift opening. . . .Matthew dug right into his presents, knowing just how to do it this Christmas all on his own! Joshua would help Matthew when needed, but actually did a good job of letting Matthew do things himself. Matthew was thrilled to play with whatever he got and loved it all! I think we nailed it though with the new shopping cart as Matthew seemed to like that the most! Joshua was excited to get the Mobigo game system that he had his eye on . . . yes we have entered the world of electronic gifts already although he loved his other gifts too and was very thankful. It was nice to see that Joshua got excited not only about getting his gifts, but giving gifts to others this year; the night before he was anxious for Papa to open his gift and really enjoyed sharing with Papa how he picked out the Grandpa pens at the santa shop all on his own at school. Surprisingly Joshua was even very excited to give Matthew his gift from the santa shop as well on Christmas morning; Joshua knows his brother well as Matthew loved his new little dump truck! I had picked up a gift on Black Fridayfor the boys to give daddy on Christmas morning and Joshua had helped me hide it and wrap it and was actually able to keep it a secret for a whole month! Joshua was beyond thrilled for Cory to finally open up the remote control helicopter we had gotten him and they have played with it multiple times a day since so it was definitely a hit! I really feel like this year Joshua understood that Christmas is all about Jesus first and foremost and the rest of the Christmas stuff is just secondary which was a true delight to see and experience with him this year!